The Effect of Green Culture and Recruitment on Business Sustainability of Plastic Manufacturing Firms in South-East, Nigeria

Abstract

Green human resource planning practices can help organizations align their business strategies with the environment. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of green human resource planning on business sustainability of plastic manufacturing firms in South East of Nigeria. The specific objectives are to, identify the influence of green culture policies on environmental sustainability of plastic manufacturing firms in South-East, Nigeria; and to ascertain the influence of green recruitment on product sustainability of plastic manufacturing firms in South-East, Nigeria. This study was anchored on the Resource Based View (RBV) theory (Barney, 1991). The population of this study comprises of selected 25plastic manufacturing firms in the South East of Nigeria with a total of 1929 elements in the population. The sample size was determined using Borg and Gall (1973) formula. Data were obtained through a structured questionnaire based on a 5-point Likert scale from 350 employees (sampling unit) working in the selected plastic manufacturing firms. The data collected and empirically tested with the use of SPSS version 23. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, linear regression, and ANOVA. The findings demonstrated that various components of GHRP significantly influenced different sustainability outcomes: green culture policies improved environmental sustainability (R = 0.981), and green recruitment boosted product sustainability (R = 0.980), all at p < 0.05. The study concluded that integrating GHRP into business operations is critical to achieving sustainable industrial practices. It recommended the institutionalization of eco-friendly HR strategies, ongoing training on sustainability, and alignment of HR policies with environmental goals to support both profitability and ecological stewardship. The study also recommended that manufacturing firms should deliberately reform the green recruitment and selection practices to facilitate effective pro-environmental and eco-friendly practices in manufacturing firms.